What Makes John McGuiness The Fastest Man on Two Wheels?

To say John McGuinness is a speed machine is to state the obvious. What’s really interesting though is that this amazing 21-time Isle of Man TT winner is humble enough, despite his 25 years of glorious racing experience, to admit to EMC World’s audience of fourteen thousand that he didn’t exactly know what makes him so fast.

When EMC and Motor Cycle News (MCN) partnered to see if they could ‘measure genius’ the results were almost as amazing as watching Mr. McGuinness take his final victory lap. EMC sought this exciting example to demonstrate how important Big Data really is and how it permeates every aspect of life, even ones that we could never imagine were connected to Big Data.

EMC equipped John with a special custom-built suit, equipped with sensors that measured his physical data in real time. The data sensors also measured the bike’s performance, biometric and mechanical data. EMC also suited another competitive rider Adam Child, Senior Road Tester with MCN. The men rode two separate six-lap turns, and the data set collected from both would be analyzed to contrast and compare their performances. This comparative analysis is then used to explain which particular factors led to John’s success and understanding these differing factors is what would become crucial to John’s next win.

The exact measurements of this data include computing heart rates, speeds, breathing rates and all other ancillary measures, incidental to his fastest average speed. In short, the data measures in real time what John is actually doing during the race, how he’s using the bike and the co-relation between the bike’s performance and John’s physical performance.

Big Data solutions have enabled so much progress in science, technology, everyday life, sports and virtually any aspect of life that works on a public or private scale. Whether its business, healthcare, education or government, EMC’s big data solutions, like Data Lakes can help the drive informed real-time decision making and push competitive businesses into top gear.

The same technology that helps this King of the Mountain measure his success can take anyone’s business to the very top too. And that’s the beauty of technology, as it becomes an intrinsic partner to any victory.